Malzahn running out of promises to keep at Auburn

Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn celebrates a after an Auburn touchdown during the NCAA football game between Auburn and LSU on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

AUBURN — Gus Malzahn took responsibility for Auburn’s collapse at LSU three days too late.

“I’ve got good coaches, I’ve got good players and anytime that happens, that’s on the head coach,” Malzahn said Tuesday. “And that’s on me.”

That should’ve been his opening remarks Saturday after squandering his biggest lead of his coaching tenure at Auburn. Fans were going to be upset regardless of what he said, but not taking the blame for the loss after the game made it worse.

Then Malzahn took out a shovel Tuesday and dug himself an even deeper hole by making two promises he better keep.

He sounded so certain, but Auburn’s season could go either really well or really bad in the next few weeks. Malzahn said he’s not thinking about his job security right now.

“The only thing I’m worried about is beating Arkansas and coming back and getting healed up for a week and try to finish this thing with the goals we started with,” Malzahn said.

He’s squandered big leads before. (Auburn led Florida State 21-3 in BCS title game in January 2014 before losing 34-31.)

Bet Malzahn didn’t think Florida State would rally from an 18-point deficit, but it did.

On Tuesday, Malzahn stood tall and firm in saying what happened at LSU won’t happen again, but deep down, he knows that could, because it just did.

He’s trying to assure angry Auburn fans he’s just as upset as they are.

“We’ve got great fans,” Malzahn said. “Our fans are very passionate. Our fans want to win championships and they should. And anytime you blow a 20-point lead on the road, they should be frustrated. I’m frustrated also and we can’t let that happen again and we’re not going to let that happen again.”

Malzahn’s moving forward and painting a positive picture the fan base can rally around, but he needs to deliver on his promises — or find himself at the mercy of administrators.

“We’ve still got a good team and I think that’s evident,” Malzahn said. “We need to go to Arkansas and we need to win. We get an off week, we need to heal up and we’ll be set to finish this thing. That’s our approach. That’s our players’ approach and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“We put that (LSU loss) behind us,” sophomore defensive back Jeremiah Dinson said. “We’re still a good team. Still a good offensive team. Still a good defensive team. Our main focus this week is on Arkansas. Big SEC game on the road. Our main focus is going in there, getting a win, getting to the bye week and getting healed up and healthy.”

Auburn may just start fast again and go up 21 in the first half Saturday at Arkansas.

The Razorbacks (2-4, 0-3) chip away and cut Auburn’s lead down to 10 at halftime, get with a field goal in the fourth and pull off a stunning comeback.

All this is hypothetical. History shouldn’t repeat itself Saturday.

Arkansas is playing bad football. Just got drubbed at Alabama, 41-9.

Bret Bielema is starting a freshman quarterback for injured senior Austin Allen. Auburn should be motivated knowing another loss will end any chance of winning the SEC.

LSU had issues going into the game, too. The Tigers had lost to Troy two weeks earlier. They bounced back with a win at Florida, but held on as they didn’t score in the game’s final 22 minute and 56 seconds.

Auburn knew it had a better team and what as was at stake. The Tigers had a chance to turn LSU’s bad into worse when building a 20-0 point lead, but let a rival back into the game in a stadium they hadn’t won in since 1999.

Malzahn needed a new OC to make it happen against defenses with NFL talent that can man-up outside and load up against the run.

Clemson has that and limited Malzahn to his worst offensive output ever of 117 yards.

LSU did it after making an adjustment to what Ed Orgeron called a “certain formation” and handed Malzahn its biggest collapse as a head coach at Auburn.

This is with a quarterback who was deemed the missing piece for Auburn’s national title aspirations.

Auburn’s last two SEC opponents, No. 3 Georgia and No. 1 Alabama, are third and fourth, respectively in total defense. Based on what we’ve seen from Malzahn’s philosophy against Clemson and LSU, Lindsey’s play-calling won’t matter against the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide.

Auburn’s defense and Daniel Carlson must win those type of games because the offense has proven it can’t.

We are so much prisoners of the moment.

Losses send fans reeling. Wins are expected.

Malzahn may have needed three days to take it all in before taking blame for the biggest collapse in his time at Auburn.

Another one like that, especially this season, could very well lead to his last game coaching the Tigers.